Finalist 2010

07 June 2012

Morphing into something better

A deep breath and a return to the Morpheus yeast beers from Alvinne, following an unpleasant experience first time out.

To begin, Freaky Dark: a very unBelgian 3.8% ABV but still definitely a Morpheus beer, what with the slow crawl of foam towards the bottleneck on opening. No major barnyard funk from this opaque black liquid but still a very sharp yeasty bite with not much going on behind it. There's a bit of dry roast which does nothing to soften it, plus a hard carbonic bite from the big-bubbled fizz. What should probably be an easy drinker is difficult, pointy beer which all but sticks in the throat.

What was I thinking following this with something bigger and stronger? Step forward Morpheus Dark: 10.2% ABV and arriving in a 75cl bottle. Pleasingly, there was only a slight hiss when the cap came off, and no rush of foam. It poured a dark brown colour with the setting sun behind the glass eliciting just a glint of ruby. The aroma is an odd mix of sweet candy and sour funk, and the flavour is even more mixed up: I get warming milk chocolate, soothing lavender, sharp grapefruit and sour plums. It's very strange and a bit of an acquired taste, but by the time I was half way through the glass I was really enjoying it, albeit slowly.

A powerful, sweet beer like Morpheus Dark seems to be the right fit for the yeast and its funkifying effects. The low-strength dry one and the US hop-bomb might have been exciting what-ifs in the brewery one morning, but probably should never have gone further than that.

They sent me all three beers to taste a few weeks ago. However, I thought it better to give my feedback to the management rather than post it on here. Now that they've released the stout I might stick a review of that up, though.